The research vessel Vema was a three-masted schooner of the Lamont Geological Observatory (now the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory [LDEO]), a research unit of Columbia University. The 202 ft (62 m). vessel, with her almost indestructible Swedish wrought iron hull, became renowned as one of the world’s most productive oceanographic research vessels. The ship had been first sailed for pleasure under the name Hussar, and after her career as a research vessel entered a new career as the cruising yacht Mandalay.